How to start going to a gym – A start up guide

Today I will be sharing my idea or steps before stepping into a weight room basically. A lot of people go to lift pretty heavy weights without caution I am not saying you shouldn’t start doing weights but I started with an instructor basically telling me pretty much start doing body weight exercises.

pretty much think this would be an ideal approach before touching any weights. Especially for teen teens people that think they are young and can get away with pretty much anything then come back to me when you age and tell me if you can say the same story hehe.

Depending on wish sport your partake let’s say boxing, there might be some benefits and some cons doing weights, you don’t want to be really stiff in a combat sport anyhow. So How to start going to a gym more effectively?let’s bring some basic exercises that will make your body stronger and ready to hit some weights.

Push-ups

A bit of humor why not

Ow, I know this is some really basic stuff, but trust me you need to build some pain resistance and you should try some before judging or saying this exercise is boring. Well if it’s that boring try doing 60 non-stop I’ll be impressed if you pull something like that without touching weights.

This will target your triceps, chest, shoulders and even getting your cardio conditioning a bit better if you are not used to running yet. Depending on where you push from let’s say close grip it will target a specific muscle which in this case triceps. Wide grip push-ups will target your shoulders, incline push-ups will target the upper chest and so on.

Pull-ups

My recommendations especially for you starters out there, start doing the negative motion of pull-ups after fatiguing, it will slowly build more resistance towards your body weight and pretty much soon you will do 5, 10, 15 always challenge your self-stretch, get out of your comfort zone if you wanna develop some muscle mass.

A proper pull is when your chin surpasses the bar so please don’t cheat yourself and try to aim for efficiency. Is it hard? good, it wasn’t supposed to feel easy anyways. A lot of peoples though that pull up were meant for chest and arms but in reality, you’re working more your back muscles. The wider the grip the more it will target your chest copy that.

Squats

I think it’s safe to say that is one of the most avoided exercises, especially at the gym. It’s the most complained exercise I ever heard I am not kidding there are all kinds of fitness meme base of this. Squats on men yes men not only women need to squat, did you know by doing this exercise you stimulate your testosterone somehow which you need for the muscle process to build.

The squat is an exercise that will mostly target your legs If is too hard for your knees to start squatting you own weight try starting the exercise sitting on a chair. Eventually, you will build the strength required and you will be not struggling at all with squatting your own weight.

This is not your traditional squat but you can do a lot with bodyweight exercise just has an example.

One thinks to remind never let your knees go forward from your toes, it will hinder your knees this way instead drive your hips down towards your heels and that way you can squat deeper. The more motion or the full range of motion the more effective the exercise.

Other good benefits from squat are that at least it will prevent you the risk of about two dozen heart conditions, slow down aging process because it stimulates the growth hormone of mitochondria which is related to the close thing to a fountain of young. How about that for squatting?

How to approach mentality

In the exercise, just like a diet, I want you to keep track how many repetitions you can do for each exercise. Let’s say your maximum with push-ups it’s 7 repetitions, right? I want you to replicate this set at least 3 times and try to be at the full range of motion and cause your muscle to soar up, the more your muscle soar the more it will develop but it’s really slow progress.

You need to workout and then at least rest a day in between so you give your body time to heal. Then you wonder why athletes have the pleasure to eat more than your average Joe well it’s simple. On a good scientific note for every pound of muscle, you gain you will burn around 50 to 70 more calories but you wonder why? Because the process of repairing your muscle tissues cost energy efficiency to the body perform that task.

So before you step…

In to a weight room push your self with this basic exercises. At least, in my opinion, give it 3 to 5 months on a consistent basis and you will notice changes if you stick to it I promise. I was there and worst I started when I was overweight but I didn’t let bullies and other people opinions to stop me from getting the body I ever dream about. If I did it I am pretty sure you can too but the process won’t be a cakewalk.

If you can’t motivate your self to find that somebody who enjoys competitions, they will push you to trust me who like to get beaten on the long run by one of your best friends or siblings, especially siblings there is always some good heating competition around.

I guarantee that. Exercise + nutrition = your desired body composition aimed to be on the athletic side of course. Also, exercise is a good stress reliever, pushing your self to get better will also develop a strong willpower and that will carry over into other aspects of life. I am a living proof of having principles and hard work ethic will payoff along the way. And you will be surprised if you have a great mindset where you can reach, but you gotta turn your doubts off, silence your inner critics. There is an African proverb that says something like this = If there is no enemy within, the enemy outside our self can do us no harm!

15 thoughts on “How to start going to a gym – A start up guide”

My biggest issue with my strength training is a lack of creativity. I tend to get stuck into the same old routine. I like some of these more creative bodyweight exercises. Thanks for sharing! Do you find it beneficial to vary you’re training a lot? Or what is a more regimented routine do more for you?

I used to be a regular at the gym, especially weight training. I would run for cardio, then do the weights. I slowly quit going. I got tired of it. I don’t know if it was burnout, or just moving on. Now I want to get fit, but want lean muscle instead of big muscle because I’m into road cycling. I’ve been taught that you can still do weights for lean muscle, just do lighter weights with more reps. Do you agree with that?

I think doing calsthethics its a better way then doing light weights and just aiming for repetitions, Now in term of muscle toning this is more relevant to the aspect of dieting rather then exercise, you should look that lifting weight purpose its to brake muscle fiber in order to repair while resting. The more you tear over the time the more repair and you start building muscle tissue. To look trim its all about having already accomplish a decent amount of muscle and then lower your body fat to obtain toning.

This is a great article for newbies. I’m an avid weight lifter and know how difficult it is to stick to a schedule and gain that all-important perfect mentality. I actually couldn’t stick to a schedule and changed my mentality to “this is a lifestyle, so I will work out whenever I can”, and to my surprise I worked out more than when I DID have a schedule because I always failed to reach it. Working out is a lifestyle change not a motivational thing, because you’ll fail to stick to any schedule you make for yourself, it’s as simple as that. Thanks for the great article 🙂

Great article, I seriously need to get back to the gym, but have found it much easier to make excuses and stay put on my couch! You’ve made me realize that I need to get my act together. If I can only get into the gym 2-3 times a week, what suggestions do you have for exercises at home without all the equip? Cheers, Karen

Very interesting article! I haven’t seen many article quite like this that help a person who has never seen a gym, get introduced to one! Very good idea, and I love the simple yet effective suggestions for the workouts that they should be doing in order to build their foundations that they can later build on once the basics are out the way!

I think the recommendation to start with body weight exercises is great. I went to a gym and sat down at a leg extension machine without checking to see how much was on. It was just more than I could handle. I ended up with torn and loose cartilage in my knee that took months and some surgery to heal.